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The French ironclad ''Normandie'' was the third and last of the three wooden-hulled s built for the French Navy in 1858–62. The ships of the ''Gloire'' class were classified as armoured frigates because they only had a single gun deck and their traditional disposition of guns arrayed along the length of the hull also meant that they were broadside ironclads. ''Normandie'' was the first ironclad to cross the Atlantic in support of the French intervention in Mexico in 1862. Although the ship was active during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, she saw no action. The unseasoned timber of her hull rotted quickly; she was condemned in 1871 and subsequently scrapped. ==Design and description== Designed by the French naval architect Henri Dupuy de Lôme, the ships of the class were intended to fight in the line of battle, unlike the first British ironclads.〔Gardiner, p. 54〕 The ship was long,〔Gille, p. 23〕 with a beam of . ''Normandie'' had a maximum draft of ,〔Chesneau & Kolesnik, p. 286〕 a depth of hold of and displaced .〔 The ships of the class had a high metacentric height of and consequently rolled badly.〔 With their gun ports only above the waterline, they proved to be very wet.〔 ''Normandie'' had a single horizontal return connecting-rod compound steam engine that drove one propeller.〔 The engine was powered by eight Indret〔 oval boilers and was designed for a capacity of .〔 She carried a maximum of of coal which allowed her to steam for at a speed of .〔de Balincourt & Vincent-Bréchignac, Part I, p. 14〕 The ''Gloire''-class ships were initially fitted with a light barquentine rig with three masts that had a sail area around . This was later changed to a full ship rig of , but later had to be reduced because excessive rolling.〔 The ''Gloire''-class ships were armed with 36 Modèle 1858 rifled muzzle-loading guns, 34 of which were positioned on the single gun deck in the broadside. The remaining two guns were placed on the upper deck as chase guns.〔 They fired a shell at a muzzle velocity of only and proved to be ineffective against armour.〔Gardiner, p. 159〕 They were replaced by rifled breech-loading Modèle 1864 guns in 1868. Six guns were mounted in the centre of the gun deck and a pair of guns replaced the original chase guns.〔 ''Normandie''s wooden hull was completely armoured with wrought iron plates thick. Backed by the sides of the hull, the armour extended above the waterline and below.〔 The ''Gloire''-class ships had an open-topped conning tower with armour thick and of armour underneath the wooden upper deck.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「French ironclad Normandie」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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